


Yellow Light

by thechosenthree



Category: Back to the Future (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Idiots in Love, M/M, Pretty fluffy all things considered, Science Boyfriends, Serial Killer Au that no one asked for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 03:38:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8355562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thechosenthree/pseuds/thechosenthree
Summary: Marty met Doc Brown for the first time when he was fifteen. First, he helped Marty overcome his fears. Then he showed Marty his heart. Marty never wanted to know the third thing about Doc but the blood stained too deep for ignorance.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is an exploration of an Au I discussed with @makeitagoodonemarty. This won't go too dark considering the topic, even serial killer Doc can't help but be a little ridiculous as well as adore Marty. Please leave comments and questions!

I'm looking for a place to start  
And everything feels so different now  
Just grab a hold of my hand  
I will lead you through this wonderland  
Water up to my knees  
But sharks are swimming in the sea  
Just follow my yellow light  
And ignore all those big warning signs

 

\- “Yellow Light”

Of Monsters and Men

 

Marty cursed himself for about the hundredth time that night, he rolled his skateboard right up to the mesh wire fence that surrounded 1646 Riverside Drive. Of course, it wasn't really a house but a garage that had been converted into a living space. Marty had heard that Doctor Brown had once had a beautiful sprawling mansion that had burned down in a mysterious fire. The guesses at the cause of the fire among Marty’s peers,when they cared enough to discuss it, ranged from food left forgotten in the oven to a demonic summoning gone wrong.

 _It’ll all be worth it if it gets Needles to get off your ass for the next month_ Marty thought in an attempt to steady his buzzing nerves. _There’s probably nothing wrong with the guy. He’s probably just old and a little senile and it’s just the assholes of the town that mess with him._ Well, that thought kind of sucked since by that logic _he_ was now well on his way to being one of those assholes. He’d committed though so he couldn’t back down now without being branded a _chicken_. The very thought made his fists clench.

The garage itself wasn’t anything remarkable on its own, but instead was one of those places that drew its essence from the being that inhabited it. The windows were dark, and the curtains were drawn, preventing Marty from getting any idea of where he was headed. It was silent except for the crickets singing in time to the temperature but many a passerby in the past had reported sounds of saws, hammering, clanging, and other sorts of disturbances. Remembering that made the silence all the more unnerving to Marty. In what served as a back yard he could barely see the shadow of the scrap that he knew was piled up back there. _Like a private junkyard_ , Marty thought and squashed an irrational giggle that threatened to bubble up.

 _Get a grip McFly and focus_ Marty scolded himself, swallowing his fear with no small amount of effort. _How are you going to get in?_ The first step was scaling the chain-link fence, which proved to be of little challenge. The next part, actually breaking in, was harder. His first idea was to climb through a window, but upon inspection, he found they were the narrow kind that only opened from the inside, so unless he was willing to smash some glass (which he absolutely wasn’t) he would have to find another way. An attempt at circling the property revealed the actual garage door was firmly shut and there wasn’t any way to get in from the roof. Frustrated as he circled back to the front door Marty kicked the welcome mat and froze when he heard the sound of metal scraping stone.

“You’ve got to be kidding me” he muttered in shaking his head in disbelief as he bent to retrieve the spare key hidden (unoriginally) under the mat. Maybe he would leave the guy a note about changing the hiding spot because that wouldn't have deterred any experienced burglar. Marty tried to shake off his unnecessary embarrassment about not thinking to look under the mat in the first place, but then again _he_ wasn’t a burglar.

 _Not yet,_ An unhelpful voice in his head reminded him. It was almost over, he just had to go in, grab something with the guy's name on it and get out, no serious damage done right? The hard part was over now; the rest of this would be easy as long as he was quiet.

 _Yeah right_.

The bolt of the lock slid away with little resistance, betraying constant use. Marty thanked God that Doctor Brown didn’t have any more locks on the inside of his door, the lack of such allowing Marty to simply walk through the front door. Maybe he would recommend getting some to the man in the note he was going to leave about the door key.

It was entirely dark inside the garage, all shadow and big hulking shapes that seemed like they would be tedious to avoid even in a fully lit room. Marty paused in the threshold, a violent eruption of goose bumps on his arms and legs, a shiver trailing its way up his spine. He was confused by the intensity of his reactions to the place. It was just a dark garage and the Doctor didn’t even seem to be home so the panic building inside of him didn’t make any sense.

Fighting past his ‘flight’ urge, Marty stepped fully into the garage and closed the door behind him (no need to alert any nosy neighbors). His eyes were already adjusted to the night outside so he was able to make out enough of what was in the place to understand that he was seeing a garage full of clutter, tools, and what looked like a number of half finished machines. He also observed all the stuff that had been covered in tarps, and geez there was a lot of that, what was even under there? He tried to keep his footsteps as light as possible as he cautiously picked his way around oddly shaped pieces of metal and precariously stacked documents and books. It was all very token ‘genius messy' but still, it somehow felt lived in, like it was still workable to the one who understood the method to the madness. _Which, for the record, is definitely not me,_ Marty thought as he narrowly avoided stepping on a bowl of nuts and bolts that had been placed on the floor (why was it there of all places?).

He tried to find anything that looked like a desk or a table that wasn’t covered in wires or bits of metal, thinking if he could just find the guy’s junk mail and make off with an envelope he would have his proof and could be off. He made his way around one of the many large tarp covered mysteries and found himself staring at what looked like a living space equipped with a couch, armchair, television, an unmade bed pressed against a wall, and what looked like a door to a bathroom. Marty swallowed hard, really feeling like he was now unforgivably invading this man’s privacy. Poking around his workshop, laboratory, _whatever_ it was, was one thing but this was his _home_ and- _just one letter_ Marty reminded himself _and then you can leave._ He shuffled around the furniture to the dark corners of the garage (which holy shit was actually a lot larger than it looked) trying to find something like a desk or table. _You’re not here to cause trouble or spread rumors or vandalize, just find what you need and get out._

Reaching out into the darkness, he grasped at air for a moment until his hand found a smooth wooden surface, and then heard the whisper of papers gliding across on top of it as he disturbed them. _Jackpot_. He maneuvered himself in front of what he was assuming was a desk, grabbed a few papers and lifted them up to try to make out what they said in the moonlight filtering through the curtains. He didn’t want to accidently take anything important. Neither of the documents Marty had picked up seemed like mail, and actually, the more he looked the more one of them seemed like a map of Oregon. Marty squinted and put held the document closer, trying to make out the route that had been marked on it in pencil, curiosity getting the better of him.

“It’s rude to read someone else’s mail kid.” Marty absolutely did _no_ t let out a shriek in response to the voice behind him. No, not a shriek, it was definitely more of a manly shout. His heart jumped right up into his throat as he broke out into a shaking, nervous sweat. It was too dark to see but he wasn’t willing to turn around. It looked like Doctor Brown was home after all.

“Well, speak up kid. What are you doing here? Speak fast I’m not entirely fond of trespassers.” There were a million things Marty was sure he should have said, _don’t hurt me I’m only fifteen, I’m not here to rob you,_ and _please don’t call the cops_ were chief among those. However, because he was Marty McFly what came out of his mouth was nothing so reasonable.

“You should hide your key in a better place than under the mat. That’s kind of dangerous.” Silence met his words, the weight of it crushing Marty’s chest. _What the fuck_?! Did he _want_ to get killed? What was he saying?! Maybe he was so panicked he had actually lost his mind.

“I beg your pardon?” the older voice sounded baffled, instead of the low, borderline threatening growl it had been until then. Hoping that was a good thing and too shaken to rethink what he was doing Marty continued.

“I mean that’s a really obvious place to hide your key- under the front door mat I mean- and it wouldn’t really fool anyone and if someone wanted to break in and steal your stuff or hurt you, I mean it wouldn’t be that hard and you should also maybe get some locks for the inside of your door-“ he was babbling and he knew it but he couldn’t seem to stop. He tried to catch his breath, uncertain if any of what he said was even understandable given the rushed way the words spilled out of him. There was no answer from behind him so he added uncertainly, “It’s just- anyone could get in and it-it’s kind of dangerous…” he was such an idiot. If he made it out of this alive he wondered if his parents would even bother to pay his bail. What if he ended up like Uncle Joey?

Hands rested on his shoulders, strong and not quite rough but still enough to make Marty flinch, and turned him around. The first thing Marty noticed about Doctor Emmett Brown was that he was wearing what had to be the single ugliest shirt that existed, if not on earth, then at least in the state of California. The next thing he noticed was that the man was taller than him by about a head but considering he had stopped growing sometime last year that wasn’t too much of a surprise. Finally, Marty tilted his head up to see the Doctors dimly lit face and blinked at the intensity in the gaze of the brown eyes. He was older but there was something ageless about him: like time was unable to completely touch him. His full head of flyaway white hair added a kind of wildness to him.

“Why are you here?” his face and tone were unreadable.

“I-“ Marty stuttered unsure of how to proceed and still not sure how to explain without sounding like someone this guy should definitely call the cops on. “I-”

“Well spit it out kid like I said I don’t have all night. Did someone send you, are your friends waiting outside?” The Doctor sounded a little irritated but still not harsh. Marty decided then that he was too shaken and exhausted to make something up, and shit he was crap at lying anyway. He hoped the man would go easy on him.

“I’m here because- I was trying to-” he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “ I was here because these assholes at my school wanted to know what was in here. They told me if I broke in and came back with proof that I’d been here they’d leave Tiff and me, Tiff’s my friend, alone and Needles promised he’d stop following my sister home and harassing her and-” Doctor Brown held up his hand and Marty immediately clammed up ready to be yelled at or worse.

“What were you looking for?” Marty blinked, looking back up.

“What?”

“You were rummaging on the desk. Why? What were you looking for?" Brown's eyebrows crinkled and honestly his puzzled and slightly weary expression was a million times less frightening than the indifference, if not a little confusing.

It was encouraging enough that when Marty answered, this time, he didn't stutter. "I wasn’t going to take anything valuable I swear, just some junk mail! I thought if they saw something with your address on it they’d think it was good enough.” Brown quirked a busy eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest.

“How would they know that you didn’t just take it from my mailbox?” he demanded, looking very much like he believed he’d caught Marty in a lie.

"Um," Marty paused slightly uncertain now. "You don't have a mailbox sir." Browns slightly smug expression dropped right off his face as he blinked at him in astonishment.

“I don’t?” he sounded so genuinely confused that Marty almost second-guessed himself.

“No?”

Doc scratched his head with one hand and placed the other on his hip looking completely befuddled and asked, "Well, what happened to it?" Marty had to admit that this was not at all where he’d imagine this conversation would go.

"I think someone stole it a while back. The mailman slides the envelopes under your door…" he trailed off as both of Docs eyebrows climbed higher and higher above his widening eyes.

“Stolen?! Great Scott!” with that he bounded towards one of the windows overlooking his front yard (barely missing falling over a stack of books) and yanked the curtain back to see, what Marty assumed, was a mailbox pole sans the mailbox.

“You’re right!” he spun around excitedly to address Marty before whirling back again to the window pressing up against it so that his nose smudged the glass. “It’s completely gone how could I have missed it?”

Marty didn’t know if he was supposed to answer but Brown carried on without his input regardless. “I understand that my presence carries a somewhat mysterious reputation in town but I hadn't realized it had reached the point where people felt inclined to take souvenirs!" he whirled around back to Marty. "It that what you're really here for? To take a few souvenirs to impress your little friends at school?" Marty didn't have time to protest before the man continued voice not quite loud enough to be a shout but Marty still fought the urge to cower. "Well you're not getting any that's for certain Shadow Boy so kindly get-" but the Doctor didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as a white and grey blur burst out from under the couch Marty had seen earlier and threw itself at Marty knocking him off of his feet and nearly ramming him into the desk. There was something wet being spread all over his face and there was a warm body pressed up against him practically vibrating in excitement. It was a dog. A large dog. In his face. Marty heard his breathing come out of him raggedly and he tried to push it away but his arms had started trembling too much to do any good. He didn't want to release the mortifying scream in his throat but it was _right there_ and he couldn't get out from underneath the animal.

“No Einstein! Down boy.” Marty distantly heard Doctor Brown call to the dog and it gave him one last fond lick before clambering out of his lap to go stand beside the Doctor it’s tail wagging a mile a minute. Brown walked closer to where Marty was lying in a heap on the floor, struggling to get his breathing under control. “Come on now stop sniveling he wasn’t going to hurt you. Look at him he’s the most docile canine out there enough with these dramatics.” Marty squeezed his eyes shut, still gasping, and pointed his head to the floor shame, exhaustion, and fear making it impossible for him to be anything but honest.

“I’m sorry sir, I’m just afraid of dogs.” His words were soft and breathless. “I’m a coward I know. Please let me go home I promise I won’t bother you again.” He was so embarrassed he felt sick, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to look himself in the mirror for weeks. Admitting he was scared of a dog to a stranger, huddled up looking so weak, no wonder Doctor Brown was so fed up. Marty was pathetic.

“I-” the next part cut off as though uncertain. “I’m sorry young man.”

The apology was so unexpected that Marty temporarily forgot his anxiety in favor of giving the man a startled look. Doctor Brown was now crouched in front of him, hands folded together, looking very much the picture of contrition. “I’ve behaved rather beastly haven’t I?” There was noting in his tone or expression to suggest he was mocking Marty, which confused the boy even more.

“I broke in to your place sir, don’t apologize.” He wheezed and Brown frowned in concern before slowly, cautiously, reaching out a hand to place on Marty’s shoulder, making sure to give him ample time to pull away. Marty didn’t.

“That may be true, but my intention was to be just intimidating enough to get some answers out of you, not to terrorize you. Can I get you anything? Water? Deep breaths now that’s it.” Marty shook his head thinking Doctor Brown had this completely backwards but did as he said, feeling his breathing start to even out.

“You’re not the problem here, I’m the one that broke in and can’t handle something as simple as a stupid dog.” Marty felt an embarrassed blush rise to his cheeks and hated himself a little more. Doctor Brown shook his head looking a little exasperated.

“Now listen, there’s nothing shameful about being afraid of a dog, cynophobia is quite common.” Marty blinked at him.

“Cyna-what?”

“Cynophobia, the fear of dogs.” Brown explained patiently, and held a hand out to Marty offering to help him back up to his feet. Marty cautiously took them and found them warm and strong, as they held his own. Unexpectedly comforting. “Perhaps,” he paused as Marty settled on his feet, swaying slightly, uncertain. “Perhaps, if you’d like that is, I could help you with your, ah, condition and you could help make it up to me for the scare you gave me tonight.”

Marty rubbed his eyes and asked rather groggily as the adrenaline left him, “How?”

Brown shifted looking uncomfortable for the first time that night. “Well, I am busy quite a lot with my research you see, and as a result poor Einstein tends to be neglected for it.” He rubbed his right hand with his left and offered a nervous half smile “How would you feel about watching over Einstein every few days? For a decent wage of course.”

Marty opened his mouth to offer some sort of response to the unexpected proposition but once again Doc continued on without him. Did the man ever stop for breath or was he so out of practice at conversation that he had forgotten how conversation worked? “Of course you wouldn’t have to start by yourself, just stop by and make sure he’s been fed my automatic dog feeder keeps going on the fritz, and work your way up to taking him for walks. I promise you if there’s any dog that could help a person overcome their fear of canines it’s most definitely Einstein, he’s docile as a lamb, if a little excitable-”

“Okay.” Marty’s quiet but firm answer made Brown abruptly stop and give Marty a look that very much suggested he had expected Marty to decline but wasn’t upset by the his acceptance. Marty could barely believe he accepted it either but there was something about the way Brown was asking, and the surreal situation he found himself in that compelled him to say yes. “Sure that sounds- I mean I can’t believe you would want to offer me a job considering the reason I’m- well.” Marty kind of wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation but felt too wrung out for even a chuckle. “Sure I’d be all for that.” Then added hastily “As long as I really could take it slow, I wouldn’t want to accidentally do anything bad to your dog or-”

“Yes of course, fears are not overcome all at once, these things take time.” Doctor Brown rubbed his hands together and moved around Marty to the desk and pulled out a pen and a piece of scrap paper. “Of course as long as you’re here I might ask you to help with an experiment or two if you’d be confortable with that. I spend days at a time writing. But the only way to keep expanding the mind is to keep it occupied with new problems.” Marty muttered a “Sure thing” belatedly remembering that Brown wrote a science column for the newspaper. He watched as Brown scribbled a phone number onto the paper and handed it to him. “This is my phone number, feel free to use it if you or your folks have any questions or if you end up changing your mind.” Marty nodded slowly having a hard time knowing how to react to this turn of events. Brown seemed unsure of how to take Marty’s silence and shifted from foot to foot, alternating his gaze between Marty’s eyes and the floor. Was this really the same man that had had Marty cowering a few minutes ago?

Now that he looked, there was something familiar in Doctor Browns gaze, something hollow and searching that Marty could identify with. After all, there had been a time when Marty had felt lonely too. Well if what he wanted was a friend, then maybe Marty wouldn’t mind that.

“When do you want me to come over Doc?” Marty asked firmly but as gently as possible. Brown’s head snapped towards Marty finally meeting and holding his gaze.

“When?” he asked blankly, a slightly stunned expression on his face.

Marty couldn’t stop the smile that sprang up to his face at the befuddled expression on the older mans face. “Yeah when do I start?”

Doc blinked a few times before snapping out of whatever arrested state he had been in and offered a tentative hand to Marty. “I’ll be in need of an extra pair of hands on Friday around 5.”

Marty shook the hand without hesitation. “Sure thing Doc. Um.” He faltered for a moment his earlier boldness that had compelled him to give Doctor Brown the nickname in the first place leaving him. “Doctor Brown.” Yet even as he said it now it felt wrong in his mouth.

“Please.” Doc tightened his grip on Marty’s hand slightly and grinned so fully Marty couldn’t help but return it. “Doc is fine.”

 


End file.
